Small-time local attainability for a class of control systems with state constraints

In this paper we consider the problem of small time local attainability (STLA) for nonlinear finite-dimensional time-continuous control systems in presence of state constraints. More precisely, given a nonlinear control system subjected to state constraints and a closed set S, we provide sufficient conditions to steer to S every point of a suitable neighborhood of S along admissible trajectories of the system, respecting the constraints, and giving also an upper estimate of the minimum time needed for each point to reach the target. Methods of nonsmooth analysis are used.